As discussed previously, perhaps one of the most important pieces of legislation for the telecoms sector proposed in the recent Queen’s speech is reform of the Electronic Communications Code, which deals with the telecoms industry’s access to land in the UK.

If you read past the Openreach headlines in Ofcom’s Digital Communications Market review, you can find four paragraphs in chapter eight announcing a review of the UK’s General Conditions of Entitlement, which will affect anyone operating a telecoms network or providing telecoms services in the UK Since individual licences were (largely) abolished in the UK in 2003, providers of electronic communications networks or services have operated subject to the General Conditions of Entitlement (aka General Conditions or GCs).

In my last post, I summarised Ofcom’s initial conclusions from its review of the UK digital communications market. One of Ofcom’s conclusions was that the functional separation of BT’s Openreach division (which provides last mile access) from the rest of BT, and the associated regulation of the relationship between BT and Openreach (implemented by binding undertakings) was … Read more

On 25 February 2016 Ofcom published its initial conclusions from its strategic review of the UK’s digital communications market. Whilst much of the headline press coverage has focused on BT being able to retain Openreach, provided its governance is reformed, Ofcom’s review goes much wider than the regulation of Openreach and sets the strategic direction for UK … Read more

On 22 January 2015, the UK Government withdrew its proposed changes to the Electronic Communications Code. As the changes were unexpected, more time for consultation is not entirely unwelcome. However, as the changes in large part were positive, I hope that this is only a delay and the proposals will be brought forward in due … Read more

In a surprise move, on 13 January the UK government announced plans to update the elderly (and, even to the House of Lords, rather incomprehensible) Electronic Communications Code which deals with the rights of telecoms operators to access public and private land. Whilst the proposed changes in large part adopt the recommendations of the Law Commission’s report … Read more

On 8 April 2014 the European Court of Justice ruled that the Data Retention Directive 2006/24/EC interferes in a particularly serious manner with the fundamental rights to respect for private life and to the protection of personal data. The Directive is declared invalid. Today’s post by Sylvie Rousseau and Matthias Vierstraete explains what the court decided and … Read more

Last week (12/12/2013), a serious blow was dealt to one of the fundamental building blocks establishing the legal framework for retention of data for law enforcement across Europe. Advocate General Pedro Cruz Villalón (AG) at the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) delivered an opinion stating that the Data Retention Directive (DRD) is, as a whole, … Read more